Another Day, Another Routine Mission
by jbn42
Summary: She should know better than to expect things to go well, but when they don't at least she's got her friends there to suffer with her.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note: **OK, so, here I go again…another little adventure for Wash and friends.

Note, this is set in the context of my other stories, but relatively unnecessary to read those for this to make sense – just be aware that in my context now, Wash and Taylor are married and have a little girl named Gracie, and the Sixers have come back to Terra Nova.

Will do my best to get updates up quickly, but real life can be a real pain in the tuckus, you know?

**Disclaimer is as usual – no profit, not mine (except Gracie, of course), just borrowing.**

_If there are two or more ways to do something, and one of those ways can result in a catastrophe, then someone will do it._ - The _Original _Murphy's Law

Alicia sighs. "What do you need, Malcolm?" It's the end of the day, a Tuesday, and she's ready to go home and spend some time with Gracie and Nathaniel. She has to swallow a grin, because she knows Nathaniel will be cranky when she gets there.

Yesterday, while on a training exercise with some of the soldiers, he somehow managed to break his right ankle. Thus far, he has refused to admit exactly how he did it, so she knows it must be somewhat embarrassing. Elisabeth ordered him to stay home, completely off of the ankle, for at least two days. He'll be on crutches for two weeks, and in his protective boot for at least six weeks.

Malcolm gives her a funny look, and she realizes that her amusement at Nathaniel's managing to hurt himself on a training exercise (of all things) must be showing in her face. She schools her expression back to one of mild curiosity. "Malcolm?"

He shakes his head. "Sorry, yes, I think we need to take a team out to a mineral deposit. It's one Mira told me about; she said that the mineral had some interesting qualities, both magnetic and as a potential power source, or at least that's what Lucas told them."

She winces at the mention of Lucas' name, and Malcolm must notice. "Look, Wash, I know he was pretty much off the deep end, but he was a brilliant scientist, too. I've hesitated to raise this because of it being based on information from Lucas. But the truth is that while our solar power set up is working very well and is more than adequate, as our population grows, we may need something more. If this stuff can be mined with minimal damage, and if it runs clean, it's worth looking into. Mira saw the deposits. She thinks they could be easily accessed."

"Malcolm, one of the biggest reasons we're here is because of what we did to the planet the first time." She gives him a pointed look.

He nods and holds his hands up. "I know. If we can't extract and use this cleanly, I'll let it go. You have my word."

She looks at him for a moment before nodding. "I have to discuss it with Nathaniel. To me, consider your case made, but you know the ultimate call is his. Is Carter also familiar with the site? Mira can't lead us there at this point." She knows Elisabeth would veto any such trip for their six-months-pregnant friend.

"I believe so."

"OK," she gives him a brief smile, "I'll talk to Nathaniel tonight. In terms of a team, what do you think you'll need?"

"Myself and one other member of my staff, and some military for cover, of course. Just in case. And I'm assuming Carter."

"All right. I'll let you know tomorrow. We may call a meeting to discuss, probably at my house because Elisabeth still has Nathaniel sequestered." She looks at him expectantly. "Is that it?"

He nods, a happy look on his face. "It is. Thanks, Wash."

"No problem, Malcolm. I'll give you a call in the morning." He clearly understands that it's a dismissal, so he just murmurs a thank you and leaves.

Looking at the plexes and whatnot piled on the desk in front of her, she decides to just organize it into piles by priority and to call it a day. She needs to go get Gracie from school and then go home to discuss Malcolm's request with Nathaniel. It's a little early to leave, but she honestly also just is worried about Nathaniel and wants to go check on him.

After stops at Gracie's school to pick her up and a quick pass by the market to pick up some vegetables for the stew she plans to cook for dinner, she is heading home, a chattering Gracie in tow. At the end of a long, rambling story about one of her teachers, Gracie is quiet for a moment before saying somewhat timidly, "Mama?"

"Yes, Gracie?" Alicia is a little concerned by Gracie's sudden change in demeanor.

"Is Daddy still going to be gwumpy when we get home? He was mad this morning. Fussed at Gracie." Alicia stops walking to look down at Gracie, who is wearing a wide-eyed, apprehensive expression.

Alicia crouches down in front of Gracie. "Little Bug, what happened? I didn't see Daddy get mad at you."

Gracie blinks a little, her big blue eyes tearing up. "Was twying to get my book for school. You were taking your shower. I asked Daddy if book was in your bed still. He got mad, said book not there, told me to go my room. Did Gracie do something bad? He still be mad at Gracie when we get home?"

Alicia's heart breaks a little to see Gracie upset, and she opens her arms. "Come here." Gracie leans into Alicia, hugging her neck. Transferring her bag from the market to her left hand, Alicia wraps an arm around Gracie and straightens up, settling Gracie on her hip. She starts walking towards home again, her concern for Nathaniel replaced with irritation.

As she walks, Alicia says, "Gracie, I'm sorry Daddy got mad at you. You didn't do anything bad, his foot just hurts and it's making him cranky," she squeezes Gracie tight to her, "You OK, little Bug?"

"Uh huh." She sniffles.

"Tell you what, when you get home, why don't you go play in your room for a bit while I talk to Daddy? I'll get you your book first."

Gracie's arms wrap tighter around Alicia's neck. "'K, Mama. Thank you."

"You're welcome, little Bug."

They're quiet for the rest of the walk home. When they get there, Alicia stops by the kitchen to drop off the market bag, and then she walks to Gracie's room. She gets her settled with her favorite stuffed dinosaur, then says, "I'll be right back."

She goes into their bedroom to find a rather surly looking Nathaniel on the bed, reading a plex. He starts to say something, and she just holds up a hand and levels a glare at him. She walks to her side of the bed and finds Gracie's book there, half under her pillow. She pulls it out, holds it up for him to see, and she shoots him a pointed look.

He seems confused, but she doesn't care. Her Mama Bear instinct is in high gear after seeing Gracie upset. After she takes the book to Gracie, she returns to the bedroom, closing the door behind her. He once again starts to say something, and she holds up her hand again. "No, Nathaniel, me first."

She glares at him again, and he seems to realize he's in a small amount of trouble with her. He nods stiffly, clearly less than pleased and looking a little defensive. "I get that you're achy and cranky, and I get that you are very unhappy to be sequestered here. Given that I am generally no better a patient than you are, I know how trapped and frustrated you feel."

She pauses, her face growing angrier. "But that does not give you license to take out your frustration on Gracie."

He looks indignant. "I didn't…"

She cuts him off, hands on her hips. "You _did_. She was in tears on the way home from school, worried that you'd still be upset with her. You got mad at her and sent her to her room for asking for _her book_, Nathaniel? What were you thinking?"

It appears for a moment that he might argue with her, but then he visibly deflates. "She was crying?"

"She was."

He shakes his head. "Damn it."

Seeing that he's now the one upset, she sits next to him on the bed, facing him, careful not to jostle his booted foot which is propped on a pillow. "Nathaniel, I know you don't like this. I know how much you hate being stuck here. But you owe Gracie an apology, and you need to quit moping around."

"I'll apologize to Gracie. But Alicia, this is ridiculous. I don't need to be trapped here. I can elevate my foot at the damned command center."

She rolls her eyes. "Maybe you _can_, but that doesn't mean you _will_. Elisabeth knows that, and that's likely why she ordered you to stay home. I know it's frustrating, Nathaniel, but it's only for a couple of days."

He crosses his arms defensively across his chest. "You don't know what it's like."

She narrows her eyes at him. "Seriously?"

He looks affronted. "Of course seriously. You've never broken a leg or ankle, never had your mobility taken away."

"That's just complete crap." He looks even more indignant, but she is no longer even mildly amused by the situation. She stands up, giving him an icy glare and crossing her own arms across her chest. "Three bullet holes, multiple infections and complications, almost six weeks confined to a bed, six _months _of PT, and over a year before I was one hundred percent again. This is two damned days in bed and only a few weeks of real inconvenience. Get over yourself."

She turns to go. "If you decide you're ready to end the pity party and start acting even marginally like a grown up again, you feel free to come to the kitchen and hang out while I make dinner. If not, I'll fix you a plate later, and you and your bruised ego can have dinner alone."

Heading into the kitchen, she knows she was probably too hard on him, but the truth is that she can't stand it when he gets like this. She's never been a big fan of self-pity, and it's particularly incongruous coming from Nathaniel. And for him to tell her that she doesn't know what it's like was a significant tactical error.

She puts a pot on the stove, getting the meat browning for dinner, and then she starts to wash and chop the vegetables to add. As she does, she can't help but let her mind wander to her time in the hospital after Somalia. The memories, not just of the pain and frustration, but also of learning of Ayani's death and all that went with that, make her cringe.

She's so lost in thought that she doesn't even hear it when, ten minutes later, he thumps up behind her on his crutches. "Alicia?" His voice makes her jump, and she actually drops the knife she's using on the vegetables. She turns quickly, and he's close to her, leaning on his crutches. "Sorry about that. At least this time you can't accuse me of moving too quietly."

She huffs out a breath and runs a hand through her hair. "It's fine. Did you need something?"

He sighs at her still slightly irritated tone. "I already apologized to Gracie, but I owe you an apology too. Between you coming back so well from it and the haze I was in after Ayani, I sometimes forget what that year must have been like for you. I'm sorry about that, and I'm sorry for the way I was acting. I really don't do well when I'm injured, do I?" He looks so sheepish and contrite that she can't stay upset with him.

She steps up to him and drops a light kiss on his cheek. "It's OK, Nathaniel. I know you hate feeling helpless. I hate it too. But as much as _I _can take the attitude and the grousing, Gracie can't. She can't parse things that are personal and things that are about your injury. Her little brain doesn't work that way yet. And for the most part, I was upset about Gracie. You know I don't handle it well when she's upset."

"As well you shouldn't. And I know. It kills me to know that I upset her, and it's just worse knowing that she was probably upset about it all day." He drops his head and his hands tighten on his crutches.

She reaches a hand up and cups his cheek. "Nathaniel, all that matters is that you apologized. Was she OK?"

He nods and gives her a half-smile. "I think so. I got a hug and an 'it s'ok, Daddy,' so I think she's fine."

Laughing softly, Alicia says, "Considering that she's really not good at bullshit yet, I'd say yes, she's fine. And you need to sit." She goes to the dining area and grabs two chairs. She drags them both over and motions to him to sit. When he looks stubborn for a moment, she lifts an incredulous eyebrow at him, and he sighs and drops into one of the chairs, propping his booted foot up on the other one. She takes his crutches and leans them against the wall.

As she goes back to working on dinner, he says, "So, I realized that you're home early. Everything quiet today?"

She nods. "It was, but I also wanted to run something by you. I just got distracted by being pissed off." She shoots him a smirk.

He gives her a rueful smile. "Sorry about that. Again. So what was it that you wanted to discuss?"

While she works on dinner, she runs through Malcolm's proposal with him, giving him facts only and omitting her opinion. Once the food is all on and simmering, at his request, she sits in the chair opposite him, moving his foot into her lap. "What do you think, Nathaniel?"

He looks pensive for a while before replying, "As much as I hate the idea of mining here, if we monitor it the right way and it runs as clean as Malcolm predicts, I can live with it. We just have to control it. We can't let this be the start of a slippery slope." He looks at her, clearly seeking her opinion.

She nods. "That's pretty much my take as well. And honestly, Malcolm's not wrong – as our numbers grow, it would be nice to have a secondary power source available. There's some potential for hydro, but this is worth exploring." She hesitates before going on, and she can see that he notices.

He suddenly gets a resigned look on his face. "You want to lead the team, don't you?"

"It should be you or me, Nathaniel, and clearly, it can't be you right now." She rubs her hand on his lower leg above the boot.

He sighs. "I know. OK. I want to keep Guz inside for now. If it hadn't been for the Phoenix Group, I never would have been OTG so much once you were six months along. He's hesitated about his last few OTG assignments."

"No problem. Maybe I could take Shannon and Carter, as well as Reynolds, Dunham and a few of the younger kids? I don't think there will be trouble, but I'd hate to be undergunned if we run into a carno or something."

He winces at that idea. "I agree. Let's get Malcolm, Mira, Shannon and Carter over here in the morning. We can plan and Mira and Carter can lay out the risks and needs for us, at least based upon what they know of the location of the mineral deposit."

She nods. "I'll call them."

As she rises to stir the food, carefully placing his foot back in the chair, he reaches out and takes her arm. "I hate this. You know that, right? You'll be careful?"

A few years ago, she would have bristled at his worry, but these days they've had enough brushes with their mortality that they're both a lot more direct and honest about their concern for each other's safety. "You know I will. And I'm leaving you Reilly to help you with Gracie. Consider that a gift." She smiles at him, running a hand through his hair.

He rolls his eyes at that. "I wish I could say I won't need help, but with those damned crutches, it would be a blatant lie." His face turns pensive again. "Maybe Skye can help too."

Laughing, she goes back to the stove. "Maybe we need another Gracie Duty Roster." She just laughs harder when she feels a dish towel hit her back.

**WT**WT**WT**

On Thursday morning, they're gathered at the gate, the teams loading into a rover and two rhinos. Over Malcolm's grumbling, Reynolds and Dunham will be driving the two rhinos while Alicia drives the rover. She already said good-bye to Gracie this morning, with no small amount of clinging and sniffles from Gracie.

Balanced on his crutches and now allowed out by Elisabeth, Nathaniel stands by, looking antsy and unhappy. She walks over to him, leaning up and dropping a kiss to his lips. "We'll be fine. We're not even going through known predator territories."

He nods. "I know. I don't have to like it, though."

She cups his cheek with her hand. "Understood. We'll be careful, Nathaniel. We always are."

"You've got Carter and Shannon in the rover with you?"

She grins. "Yes. They're over there fighting about who gets to ride shotgun. I'm going to make them rock-paper-scissors for it."

That makes him crack a smile. "You're going to have your hands full with those two. Good luck."

She kisses him again. "Yep. Gonna need it." She turns and sees the scientists and junior soldiers load the last of the gear into one of the rhinos, and Malcolm begrudgingly climb into the front of the one that Mark is driving. Mark and Dunham each give her a wave, signaling that they're ready to go. Everyone's respective spouses are hanging about, seeing the group off.

Alicia looks over at her rover, and she smiles when she sees Carter and Shannon shoot for shotgun, just as she'd said she was going to make them. Nathaniel chuckles softly when Shannon's paper covers Carter's rock, leading a grumbly, pouty Carter to climb into the back seat.

She looks back up at Nathaniel. "Got to go, Nathaniel."

He reaches out and hugs her to him. "OK. I'll miss you, Alicia."

She smiles as she pulls back. "I'll miss you too." With one last brush of her lips on his cheek, she heads for the rover and jumps behind the wheel. "Ready to go, kids?" Shannon laughs and Carter grumbles, and she can't help but grin.

With a nod to Nathaniel, he calls, "Open the gate," to the soldiers up in the tower. It lifts, and she waves at him before gunning the engine and shooting out of the gate, leading the way for the two rhinos behind them. Just a routine OTG mission. That's all this will be, she's sure of it.


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Note: **RE: this chapter – I'm not a rock climber (have read a little obsessively about it, but my knees say NO WAY), so I apologize for anything inaccurate here. I did my best with my imagination + Google. : )

Note, this is set in the context of my other stories, but relatively unnecessary to read those for this to make sense – just be aware that in my context now, Wash and Taylor are married and have a little girl named Gracie, and the Sixers have come back to Terra Nova.

**Disclaimer is as usual – no profit, not mine (except Gracie, of course), just borrowing.**

_If anything can go wrong, it will._- Murphy's Law

As they plow into the foothills, heading towards one of their outposts that is actually in the mountainous area beyond the colony, Shannon twists in his seat in the rover to look at the still-sulky Carter in the back. "So, how hard is it to get to this thing?"

He's silent for a moment. "It's not easy, that's for sure. You saw we packed climbing gear?"

Shannon nods, and Alicia just listens closely. Carter goes on, "We'll actually need to go at it from above. We'll need to rappel down. Climbing up to it will be too hard. A few of us could likely do it," Alicia can almost feel Carter's eyes on her, "But most probably can't."

"What are you trying to say, Carter?" Alicia challenges him.

He snorts. "I'm not trying to say anything, Wash. You're in the former category, not the latter. Guz filled me and Mira in. I know you can handle it."

She swallows a smile as Shannon whips his head towards her. "What would Guz be filling him in on, Wash?"

She shrugs. "On occasion, when we had leave, I'd do a little rock climbing."

Carter snorts. "A little rock climbing?"

If she didn't have to watch the terrain in front of their rover, Alicia would likely be shooting Carter a warning glare. As it is, she just says, "Carter, shut up."

She hears him laugh, and Shannon jumps in. "No, Carter, don't shut up. I want dirt!"

Carter laughs again. "It's not dirt, man. 'A little rock climbing' is just an understatement. According to Guz, one of Taylor's favorite war stories about our Wash here is about a time when they were pinned down against a nearly-sheer rock face. They needed a sniper, so this one strapped a sniper rifle to her back, put an ammo belt on and scaled the rock face, about sixty feet straight up."

Alicia feels Shannon's eyes on her, and she just rolls her eyes and shakes her head. Carter goes on, "And apparently, the bad guys also had a sniper, one who kept trying to pick her off, so halfway up the rock face, she got a hold, whipped the rifle off, took out their sniper, put the rifle back on and finished the climb. Taylor says she then proceeded to pick off about two dozen enemy soldiers in less than ten minutes, clearing their path out to clear ground. She did all that without gear and without belay. All she had was her combat boots and those damned fingerless gloves they both wear."

The vehicle goes quiet, and Alicia finally says, "It was forty-five, _maybe_ fifty feet, tops, not sixty. And I took out _two _snipers on my way up."

Carter laughs again, but she can feel Jim's eyes on her. "What, Shannon?"

He jumps a little and settles in his seat. "Is there anything you _can't _do?" His voice is slightly petulant.

She knows it was probably meant to be a smart-assed rhetorical question, but she can't resist. "Knit."

"What?"

"I can't knit. Oh, and I can't pee standing up, at least not without making a big mess. Otherwise, no. There's nothing I can't do." She sweeps her eyes over to him briefly, shooting him a feral little grin before going back to paying attention to the terrain.

As Carter laughs even harder, Jim grumbles to himself. "Scary woman." He's silent for the rest of the ride to the outpost, making Alicia grin, the ride quiet except for the wind whooshing through the vehicle and an occasional snicker from Carter.

**WT**WT**WT**

As they pull into the outpost in the lower part of the mountain range, Alicia notices a stiff breeze. They climb out of the rover, and she gives Carter a concerned look. "Was it this windy when you were here before?"

He furrows his brow. "No. We may have to start with just you and me going down if it's still this bad tomorrow. We can't let inexperienced people down there in these conditions."

Alicia nods, and Jim says, "That will piss Malcolm off."

"What will piss me off?"

Alicia turns to him. "If this wind doesn't die down, only experienced climbers will be going down to the mine site."

"Wash, come on!" Malcolm sounds outraged.

"It's not up for debate, Malcolm. I will not risk personnel. Carter and I can go down and get you a sample, and we can determine the workability of mining." Alicia levels a firm look at him.

He throws his hands up as Reynolds and Dunham join them, the two privates and Malcolm's assistant staying clear of the drama. "Oh sure, Lieutenant, because you and Carter here have so much geological background. What next? A treatise on the laws of physics from the Terra Nova brain trust?"

Reynolds' face darkens at that. "Dr. Wallace, you know I respect you, but that's out of line."

Even as Shannon and Carter bristle, Alicia holds up a hand to all three of them. "I got this, guys." She turns and advances on Malcolm. "Dr. Wallace, while I appreciate that you will be highly disappointed if I have to ground you tomorrow, let me be very clear. I don't give a damn whether you think I'm smart enough for this assessment or not. If the wind does not diminish, only Carter and I have the experience and ability to safely rappel down a cliff face. If it looks promising, we'll wait a day or so to see if the wind abates. If it doesn't, we'll come back again at a later time. But I will not jeopardize anyone's safety, not even yours, for this, something you yourself characterized as a nice to have. Do you copy, Doctor?"

A clearly cowed Malcolm nods, and she stalks away towards the outpost. "I'm going to check in with the colony. Reynolds, sort out watch duty for tomorrow."

Reynolds calls a "yes, ma'am" behind her, and she just waves in response. She already has her pack on her shoulder, and she's heading inside to call Nathaniel. After talking to him and to Gracie, she settles into one of the private rooms in the outpost.

A knock on her door frame makes her look up. Shannon and Carter are standing there, packs in hand. She realizes that they are likely wanting to crash with her instead of the scientists and younger soldiers. She waves them in. "Make yourselves at home."

They each drop onto one of the empty cots in the room. Shannon speaks first. "You OK? I know Malcolm pissed you off."

She sighs. "Yeah, I'm fine. I just don't like it when anyone is cavalier about safety. And no, for the record, I'm not upset that he was a wise ass about how smart or not smart I am." She looks at Carter. "I figure you're OK with that too, seeing as we're both reasonably intelligent and all it did was make Malcolm look like a bit of a jerk."

Carter grins. "No worries here, little sister. But I wonder if now is the time for me to tell Malcolm that I actually did go to college."

Jim and Alicia both look at him, incredulous. He smirks. "What?"

Alicia recovers first. "Are you serious?"

He tries to look affronted, but he fails miserably, shrugging. "I really am, as unexpected as that might be. I didn't finish, but I was doing pretty well before I had to drop out."

Jim blinks. "What were you studying?"

"It's too perfect, to be honest." Carter grins. "It was geology."

Jim and Alicia go back to staring at him, and then they both dissolve into laughter. Alicia shakes her head. "You're right, that really is perfect."

"Why did you have to drop out?" Jim lifts an eyebrow at him.

Carter's face falls a bit and he goes silent, and Alicia figures it out pretty quickly. "Same reason I lived on the streets on my own from fourteen until I enlisted?" She refers to her own past after her mother's death made her an orphan, something both Jim and Carter already know about.

He nods stiffly. "Pretty much, or at least close. I dropped out to take care of my mom while she was dying. Didn't have the heart to go back once she was gone."

They all go silent after that. After a while, Jim says, "So, I spent two years in prison for attacking the cops who tried to go after Zoe."

Alicia and Carter both give him a funny look. He looks back at them with a crooked smile. "Just trying to find a shitty moment in _my _life to share. I was feeling left out."

Alicia rolls her eyes and Carter throws a pillow at him, but they all laugh. Alicia shakes her head. "Misery loves company, right Shannon?"

"Always!" He grins at her. With that, they all go and get ready for bed, all of them still smiling when they turn out the light.

The next morning, pack slung over one shoulder, Alicia steps out of the outpost and into the sunlight, closing her eyes and arching her back in a stretch. She is relatively relaxed for being OTG, because there aren't many dinos up this way. They have a fence, but it's basically unnecessary here. "Good morning, Lieutenant."

Alicia opens her eyes in surprise, looking in the direction of the voice she just heard. She blinks when she sees Malcolm there, leaning against her rover. She walks over to him, and she can see that he looks a little nervous. As she walks, the same stiff breeze from the prior afternoon hits her. "Morning, Malcolm. Did you need something?"

He looks even more nervous. "Yes. I need to apologize. I was unforgivably rude yesterday. I shouldn't have said what I did, and I understand that you are responsible for the safety of everyone here."

She sighs and throws her pack in the back of the rover. "Don't worry about it, Malcolm."

He nods. "I see the wind is still up."

"Yes, it is." She's not going to make this too easy for him.

"I will respect whatever you decide about today, Wash, but I do ask that you consider letting me go down with you. I've done some climbing, though I know I'm likely nowhere near as adept as you and Carter. But I'll follow all instructions and wear whatever safety equipment you require."

She levels an appraising look at Malcolm. "I'll think about it, Malcolm, but I won't make a decision until we're up there and can properly assess the conditions. Even then, either Carter or I will go down first, and if we think it's too difficult or too unstable, it's a no-go. Clear?"

He nods again. "Crystal. And thank you, Wash."

Two hours later, standing on a cliff face, all Alicia can think is that this is a bad idea. The wind is a little lighter, though, and the face is actually sloped just a little, maybe enough to make a return climb a little easier. She's considering letting Malcolm go down.

She's already geared up, in a harness, helmet, gloves and shoes made for rock climbing. The shoes are old, but lightly used, one of the things she got sent from the future before they lost the portal. Her clothes are her regular fatigues and tank. She slips on a small backpack loaded with water, a first aid kit, snacks, a space blanket and a light jacket.

She slips on her comm, and she looks at Carter. "I'm going to see how it is. You and Malcolm go ahead and gear up. If I think it's safe, you can both come down. If it's moderate, just you, and if it's bad, I'm coming back up."

"Understood. Be careful, Alicia." He gives her a very un-Carter-like serious look.

"Always am, Carter." She won't admit it to anyone, but she's actually looking forward to this a little. It's been forever since she's had time to do any climbing, and she misses it.

She walks over to where they have lines put in, driven through multiple clips in the surface. After a primer on procedure, they've got Dunham, Reynolds and Jim set up to belay them. She briefly considered having Jim belay Malcolm, but she decided that the temptation to drop him, or more likely, just to mess with him a little, might be too great.

As she hooks in and prepares to rappel down to the cave Carter pointed out, she also checks that her gun is in place, just in case any unfriendly winged dinos have taken up residence. She looks up at Jim. "OK, Shannon, you ready?"

He nods tightly. "As I'll ever be."

"Shannon, relax. All you have to do is not drop me. That's it."

"Yeah, and if I screw up, your very scary husband will gut me." He actually looks genuinely scared.

She rolls her eyes. "He won't gut you, Shannon. He'll just banish you and drop you off in slasher territory." Giving him no time to reply, she nods at him and says, "On belay." He reacts instantly, and when she sees he's ready, she steps back off the cliff edge, smoothly rappelling down the face to the cave opening, pushing off the rocks twice to get there.

It wasn't too bad, but Alicia isn't particularly happy with the condition of the cliff face. Rocks rained down after each push off, leading her to worry about their ability to easily get back up. The wind is also stiffer here. She activates her comm. "Am down. Will assess and call back."

She peers down off the ledge she stands on, and she can actually see some paths that could be used to descend, but it would be tough going and would require rappelling past a few spans. Also, Carter was right that ascending from the bottom up would likely have been too difficult. She might've been able to manage it, but it would have been a challenge. It's about fifteen hundred feet straight down to get to a point that a rover could reach. They're only about thirty-five hundred feet above sea level, but the air is already thinning a bit.

She taps her comm again. "Carter, you copy?"

His voice comes back immediately. "How's it look, Wash?"

"You come down first. Jury's still out on Malcolm, but I'm leaning towards no. There's some degradation of the rock face that worries me a little."

"Understood. Coming down." He clicks off, and a moment later, she hears him call out that he's on belay. Reynolds is anchoring him, and she knows the big kid can handle Carter's weight. Dunham will hold Malcolm if they let him come down.

She watches Carter push off, twice just as she had, before he lands clean next to her. "I see what you mean about the face."

She gives him a rueful half-smile. "We can't let him come down."

"I agree, Wash. It's not safe. It'll be tough for us to make it back up. This is honestly pretty significantly worn down since the last time I was here." He looks around. "I'm wondering if there's been seismic activity here."

"I'd say it's possible. There are tons of hot springs and fissures in the foothills." She taps her comm a third time. "Malcolm, you there?"

She hears static, and then a resigned sigh. "You're not letting me down, are you?"

She chuckles. "Sorry, Doc. It's too dangerous. With the wind and the slippery rock slope, it's going to be tough even for Carter and me to get back up."

"Understood, Wash. And thanks for even considering it. Take lots of pictures, and get me samples, OK?"

"You got it, Malcolm." She taps the comm again, ending the connection. Pulling out her sonic pistol and a flashlight from her harness, she nods at the cave opening. She sees Carter do the same, and they each take a side and proceed cautiously into the cave. Once they see that there aren't any dinos, Carter starts to chip away some samples of a greenish rock that she sees deposited around.

She pulls a small camera from a bag on her belt, and she begins to take pictures. They're not deep in the cave, so they have enough line to stay clipped in, something she's glad of a moment later. Out of nowhere, they feel a rumble travel from under their feet to reverberate up the cave walls and beyond. They look at each other in alarm and head for the opening of the cave.

She shoves her camera back in the bag on her belt, and she sees Carter pulling a drawstring on a bag he thrusts into his pack, she assumes with the rock samples. A hail of smaller rocks begins to rain down over the entrance of the cave, and then they feel an even deeper rumble and the sound of large rocks shifting above them.

Alicia suddenly has a thought about what the sound might be. She hits her comm. "Mark, Shannon get away from the edge, now!"

The rumble and vibrations suddenly get even stronger, and then, with a sickening feeling, Alicia realizes that the rope to her harness, taut a moment ago, has gone slack. She looks over to see Carter's do the same. In unison, they say, "Shit."

The smaller stones have stopped falling, so Alicia steps cautiously out to the ledge area to peer back up towards Shannon, Reynolds and the others. All have moved back except Jim. As Alicia looks up, an even louder crash sounds, and she hears Mark yell, "Mr. Shannon!"

Carter emerges from the cave behind her just in time for them both to watch in horror as the cliff edge they'd rappelled from completely dissolves under Jim's feet. In the next moment, in a tangle of lines for their harnesses, Shannon is sliding and tumbling towards them. Miraculously, he doesn't go flying off the face, but instead manages to take a controlled fall in their direction.

Carter does his best to push Alicia out of the way, making her step to the side to keep her balance. Unfortunately, the ledge they're on just isn't all that big. Shannon ends up colliding with Carter, and the force of the impact throws Carter backwards towards Alicia.

Shannon lands hard on top of Carter, but as they come to a stop, they hit Alicia. She can't stop the shriek that she emits as she tumbles backwards off of the ledge. The only thing that keeps her from plummeting fifteen hundred feet to the slope below is her belay line, which goes taut with a hard snap, leaving her dangling about a foot below the ledge. Her momentum makes her spin, and she cracks her helmeted head on a rocky outcropping.

Dazed, she tries to stay as still as she can to keep from putting more pressure on the rope. "Wash!"

She looks up to see Shannon peering over the lip of the ledge above. She's relieved to see that outside of some nasty looking cuts and likely a multitude of bruises, he seems OK. Her relief, however, is short-lived. As she looks up at Jim, and her rope gives a little, making her drop another six inches. Blinking, her eyes meet Jim's as they simultaneously realize that her rope is coming loose from whatever is holding it.

He lunges forward as she throws her arms upward with a cry of, "Shannon!" As she desperately reaches up for him and he reaches for her, she feels her rope go completely loose and the world drops away beneath her.


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's Note: **So, yeah, that last chapter was my first ever cliffhanger that was a literal cliffhanger! Onward and upwards? Or maybe downwards? Reminder – I'm not a rock climber, so I apologize for anything inaccurate here. I did my best with my imagination + Google.

Note, this is set in the context of my other stories, but relatively unnecessary to read those for this to make sense – just be aware that in my context now, Wash and Taylor are married and have a little girl named Gracie, and the Sixers have come back to Terra Nova.

**Disclaimer is as usual – no profit, not mine (except Gracie, of course), just borrowing.**

_Left to themselves, things tend to go from bad to worse._- Murphy's First Corollary

Even as Alicia throws herself upwards towards Shannon, she knows she's falling. She reaches almost blindly for him. A moment later, she feels an iron grip on her left wrist. Her eyes meet Jim's, and then she looks at her wrist to see his right hand tight around it. She takes a deep breath and grips his wrist with her hand. Forcing herself to stay still and not make it harder for him to hold onto her, she looks back up at him, fear coursing through her.

His eyes are determined. "Alicia, I won't drop you. I swear to God I won't. Give me your other hand." He reaches his left hand towards her.

She pushes down the panic, her breaths coming fast and hard. She squeezes his right wrist tight and gives him a quick nod. Composing herself, she reaches her right hand up. He grabs her wrist, holding tight, and she again wraps her hand around his wrist. Being held in both of his hands, she breathes out a quiet, "OK."

"I'm going to pull you up, Alicia. Help me if you can."

She nods, and she feels him begin to lift her. When she can, she plants her feet on the underside of the ledge, giving her some steadiness and leverage to help him pull her up. A moment later, she's back level with the ledge, and he falls back, taking her with him. He ends up sitting on the ledge, her sprawled across the ledge and his legs.

Still fighting the remnants of panic, she scrambles away from the edge and towards Jim until she's nearly in his lap, hugging him. "Thank you."

He hugs her back, holding her to him in an almost vice-like grip. They stay like that for a while before he says, "Looks like I'm finally starting to pay you back for the whole you died to save my family thing."

She huffs out a laugh at that, but suddenly realizes that Carter has been silent. She looks around for him, and she sees him leaning back against the rock near the cave entrance. His eyes are closed, and he's holding his left arm close to his body. Releasing Jim, she crawls over to him, Jim following closely. "Carter? Are you all right?"

He groans a little. "Shannon, you are one heavy son of a bitch." He opens his eyes and looks at them. "When you landed on me, you knocked the air out of me and my shoulder came out again." He refers to his left shoulder, which he dislocated on an OTG mission shortly before his wedding to Skye.

Jim and Alicia both wince in sympathy. She reaches out and brushes some of the dirt from his face. "Damn, Carter."

As Jim apologizes and Carter shakes his head, they all are surprised to hear a voice from above, Reynolds yelling in a panicked voice. "Wash? Mr. Shannon? Carter?"

Alicia goes to activate her comm to find it gone, probably lost when she went over the edge. "Do either of you still have your comm?" Jim shakes his head no, but Carter removes his with his right hand, passing it to Alicia. She puts it on her ear and taps it. "We're all still here, Mark, down to one comm, though."

She hears him sigh in relief. "Wash, are you guys all OK?"

"We're pretty beat up, but we'll be all right. Is everyone up there still in one piece?"

After a moment of chatter, he replies, "Yes. Dunham twisted his ankle backing away from the ledge, but we're otherwise fine," he pauses before asking quietly, "Wash, the cliff is a mess, loose rock and a lot more sheer now. What are we going to do?"

She swallows hard. "Give us a minute, Mark. I need to talk to Carter and Shannon." She ends the call and stands up to peer at the cliff face. "Damn it."

"What's wrong?" Carter asks. She looks over and sees both of them watching her.

She shakes her head and inches towards the edge, peering down. The path below them is mostly unchanged. "We have to go down."

"What?" Jim sounds alarmed.

Carter asks quietly, "Impassable above?"

She walks over to them, crouching down. "It might as well be. If I was 100% and had full gear it would be a significant challenge. As it is, none of us are 100%, Shannon has never climbed, some of the gear is probably completely jacked and you have a dislocated shoulder. There's no way that we'd make it."

Carter nods, looking resigned. Jim looks more than a little freaked out. "So, what do we do, Wash?"

She puts a reassuring hand on his arm as she calls Reynolds again. "Mark?"

"Here, Wash. What's the plan?"

"I need you to get my big pack out of the rover. It's only partially full. Load it up with all the water and food you have, as well as medical supplies from the rover. In particular, I need suture kits, antiseptics, analgesics and something I can use to immobilize Carter's arm. I also need all of the climbing gear you still have up there and the extra space blankets. Go into Shannon's and Carter's packs and grab some extra clothes for each, put that in the small duffle that's in the rover, and send it down too. Use a rope to send it to us, then we'll take the rope too."

She hears Mark bark her requests to the two younger soldiers, and then he says, "Wash, what are you going to do?"

She hesitates before replying, "We're going down, Mark. There's no way we can climb up."

"Shit, Wash! We're close to two thousand feet to the plateau below!" Mark's voice is incredulous.

"Hey, it's only fifteen hundred from here, kid," she pauses, "But it's the only thing we can do. We'll go as far as our injuries allow today, bivouac somewhere on the path, then go the rest of the way in the morning." She tries to sound more confident than she really feels. "I'm going to give you to Carter. He'll have to try to tell you how to get to the plateau with a rover. We're going to need a lift once we're about fifteen hundred feet south of here."

"Wait, Wash!"

"Mark?" She keeps the comm on.

"How badly are each of you injured? We have to call this in, and the doc, the Commander and Skye are all going to ask."

She sighs. "Carter dislocated his shoulder again, and I wouldn't be surprised if he has some bruised ribs. Shannon is cut and scraped all to hell and he probably feels like one big bruise, but he's mostly all right." Jim nods at her, and she adds, "Carter, poor bastard, broke his fall." That earns a light snort from Carter. "And I'm pretty sore, hit my head on the rock and my hips and back are killing me from bouncing hard against my harness when I fell off the ledge."

"When you what?" Mark is back to panic.

"I'm OK, kid. Shannon caught me. Literally. It was really close, but I'm OK." She takes a deep breath. "Nathaniel, Elisabeth and Skye will be worried, but we really are all right, Mark. I promise. Now let me pass you to Carter."

"Yes, ma'am. Dr. Wallace is getting your pack loaded right now, by the way. We'll send it down shortly."

"Thanks, Mark." She hands the comm to Carter.

As Carter talks to Reynolds, Alicia looks at Shannon. He's standing near the cliff face, staring down at the path they'll have to take. She walks up behind him, dropping a gentle hand on his shoulder. "You'll be fine, Jim. You can do this."

He starts a little, and then he looks back at her with a wry smile. "You must be really worried. You just called me Jim." She just squeezes his shoulder, and he looks back towards the path down. "I hope you're right, Wash. I hope I can do this."

She doesn't know what to say to encourage him, so she just squeezes his shoulder again, standing there in silence with him while they wait for the supplies from above.

Half an hour later, they're ready to head down. She helped Carter pop his shoulder back in, and then she fashioned a sling from a sheet that was in one of the vehicles. He'll only be able to wear it during the safer parts of their trek down the cliff face; in the more treacherous parts, he'll need to forgo it for the sake of keeping his balance.

They've also managed to amass a decent-sized pile of climbing gear, including four ropes still in usable condition. They have a fifth, her rope from her first rappel, but it's thinning and worn from the rocks and her fall on it.

Alicia calls up to Reynolds once more before they start down. "Mark?" At this point, they aren't even attempting a pretense of formality.

"Hey, Wash. Are you sure…"

"Mark, we're sure. We're heading down. You go to the outpost, call in to the colony with information about the situation. We'll see you tomorrow at the plateau, OK?" She needs Mark to be relatively calm when he talks to Nathaniel. "But don't look for us too early. Your father-in-law is slower than Christmas." She catches Jim's eye, and he gives her a half-smile and a nod, clearly understanding that she's just trying to put Mark at ease.

After a beat, Reynolds says, "Copy that, Wash. One last thing, though. I know I'm going to have to give a sit rep to the commander. What do I need to tell him?"

She hesitates, but then she sighs a little. "The truth, Mark. Just tell him the truth. But you can also tell him that I said he's in deep trouble with me if he attempts to disobey any orders from Elisabeth or if he leaves Gracie."

"Ma'am…"

"Tell him, Mark. Consider that an order." Her voice is firm.

With that, it's Reynolds' turn to sigh. "Yes, ma'am. Be careful, Wash. All of you."

"Will do, kid. And good luck with my overly-excitable husband. I have a feeling you'll need it. Washington out." She nods to Jim and Carter. Jim has her large pack on, carrying the heaviest load. She's got her small pack from earlier, with the small duffel that Reynolds sent down to them strapped to it.

Carter is unencumbered. He tried to fight them on that, but neither Alicia nor Jim would back down. Alicia and Jim are both sore, but Carter's shoulder is in bad shape. Alicia knows it's killing him, even immobilized, and she isn't going to let him injure himself even further. "Ready to go, boys?"

Carter just gives her a quick nod of acquiescence, and Jim just mumbles, "As I'll ever be." Carter takes the lead, heading off the ledge down a narrow path they will navigate for the first part of their arduous journey to the plateau below them.

**WT**WT**WT**

_Terra Nova_

"They _what_?" Over the radio, Nathaniel knows his voice must sound a little terrifying to Reynolds, but he doesn't care.

"Sir, there was some unexpected seismic activity. It caused a slide, and, like I said, Wash, er, Lieutenant Washington, Mr. Shannon and Carter are having to descend to a plateau about fifteen hundred feet down from where they were." Reynolds' voice sounds nervous, and Nathaniel knows he's holding something back.

"Corporal, you tell me every detail. That is an order." Nathaniel shifts in his chair in the communications room at command.

Reynolds takes a deep breath and recounts the events of the morning. By the time he finishes, he seems to notice that Nathaniel is uncharacteristically quiet. "Sir?"

After a moment, Nathaniel asks in a soft voice, "She _fell off _the ledge?"

Reynolds' voice is equally soft, as if he's still upset himself about what happened. "Yes, sir. According to the lieutenant, Mr. Shannon caught her, literally. But sir, she said she really is OK, and I believe her. Both she and Mr. Shannon are worried about Carter, though. I could tell."

Nathaniel's head is already racing over the things that need to be done. As he wonders to himself whether Elisabeth will watch Gracie for him, Reynolds says, "And sir, I have a message to deliver from Wash. I apologize now for how insubordinate it might sound, but she ordered me to pass it along."

Nathaniel furrows his brow. "Go ahead, son."

Reynolds takes another deep breath, clearly afraid of Nathaniel's reaction. "Sir, she said, and I quote, you are 'In deep trouble with her if you attempt to disobey any orders from Dr. Shannon or if you leave Gracie.'"

Nathaniel feels a flash of irritation at that, but he restrains himself from taking it out on Reynolds. "Did she now?"

"She did, sir, and she sounded serious."

Reynolds sounds so nervous that it actually makes Nathaniel quirk a half-smile. "Well, Corporal, I'll take that under advisement. Now, is there anything you need?"

"Sir, we're going to head over to the plateau in the morning to wait for them, and then we'll be going back to the outpost for the night, because there's no way we can make it back to the colony safely as late as we'd be leaving."

"OK, Reynolds, you're leading up to something."

Now that the minefield of the message from Wash has been navigated, Reynolds starts to sound more confident again. "Yes, sir. I was talking to Dr. Wallace, and we're both worried that our only medics out here are Wash and Carter. If they're both injured…"

Nathaniel finishes for him, "You need a doctor or a medic."

"Yes, sir, we think that would be the safest bet."

"OK, Corporal, I'll rustle one up for you, and they'll head for the outpost and meet you there tomorrow. Is that all?"

"Yes, sir."

Nathaniel nods. "All right, son. Call us back if you think of anything else you need. Otherwise, I expect to be hearing from my wife tomorrow afternoon."

"Yes, sir. Reynolds out."

As the connection ends, Nathaniel leans back in his chair, running a hand through his hair and eyeing his booted foot. He knows he'd only be in the way if he insisted on joining the team that will take a medic or doctor out to them tomorrow. He also knows that Alicia really will be upset with him if he shows up at the outpost tomorrow.

His appearance would also likely trigger the look she gets on her face when he has disappointed her, and leaving Gracie behind would definitely disappoint Alicia. A lot of people in the colony fear inciting her wrath. He fears letting her down, and that by itself is enough to keep him inside the gate this time.

Shaking his head, he grabs his crutches and pushes himself up, and he heads to the infirmary to kill two birds with one stone. He needs to get a medic for tomorrow, and he figures he'll find Skye and Elisabeth there to let them know about Carter and Shannon. He isn't looking forward to this visit, especially Skye's reaction, but he knows he has to do it.

As he slowly makes his way across the plaza towards the infirmary, he can't help but wonder just how many lives Alicia has. He swears that his wife is like a damned cat. She's got nine lives, and she always seems to land on her feet. All he can hope is that continues to be the case and that he hears from her tomorrow afternoon. Well, that, and he can hope that their OTG missions stop being so disaster-prone.

**WT**WT**WT**

_OTG Team_

"How are you doing, Carter?" Alicia calls to her friend; he's taking point as they descend. For now, they're on a path, one that is treacherous but passable. She's on the six with Jim between them. She considered taking the lead herself but really wants Jim in the middle, and she knows she's better able to help Jim right now.

She hears Carter deadpan back, "I'm fine, Mom."

Shannon snorts audibly at that, and Alicia rolls her eyes. More quietly, she says, "And how about you, Shannon?" His shoulders stiffen a little, but he nods at her.

She's actually pretty happy with how Jim is doing. The path is narrow, very dangerously so, but he's managing it well, particularly considering the pack he's carrying. As they've been walking, she's been considering how to handle the few times they're likely going to need to rappel. When she'd first gotten to the cave and peered over the ledge, she'd seen two or three spans of sheer drop off that will likely require them to rappel.

The good news about the spans is that, at least from above, they'd appeared to be relatively short. She estimates that, in just over an hour, they've already descended close to 150 feet. That might not sound like much, but on foot, loaded down and all bruised and battered, ten percent of the distance they have to cover done in an hour isn't that bad. Seeing that they're about to pass a vantage point where the path widens and she can actually lean down and check out their progress, she says, "Water break, guys?"

They both stop, Carter actually dropping into a sitting position against the rock wall. Jim just shoulders out of the pack and grabs water out of pack for himself and Carter. Alicia is carrying her own in her small pack. After looking down and assessing, she walks over to Carter and crouches down. He looks up at her. "What's up, Wash?" He sounds exhausted, even though he seems to be trying to hide it.

She rubs a hand on his good arm. "We're going to need to rappel soon, maybe twenty minutes from now. Will you take a painkiller?"

He shakes his head. "No way, Wash. Even if you make me go down first, you know I need to be as sharp as possible."

"OK. But I had to offer. And you're right – I'm making you go down first. I'm going to need you to set the line for Shannon to go down while I belay. I also want to lower the packs to you before Shannon and I come down." She hesitates, knowing he hates to appear weak. "Carter, it looks like the area we want to get to for the night, a wide area with some wind protection, will at least be another hour away. I need you to tell me the truth here – can you make it?"

He bristles slightly, but then he tries to roll his shoulder and winces. "Yeah, Wash. I can make it. But honestly, I doubt I can do much more than that. Between my shoulder and my ribs, I'm doing the best I can to not flinch with every step."

"I'm really sorry, Carter." They both look up to see Jim looking dismayed.

Carter levels a look at Jim. "Shannon, I told you up on the ledge – don't worry about it. You were falling. As much as I feel like crap right now, I'm not sitting here wishing it'd happened another way, because most of the alternatives include you splattered across the plateau. So stop apologizing."

Sighing, Jim holds a hand out to Carter. Once he's up, he turns and starts down the path again. Jim and Alicia shoulder their packs and follow. As promised, they get to the point where they'll need to rappel just under twenty minutes later. They all gear up with the equipment Reynolds had provided, and Alicia helps Carter get set. He's clearly not crazy about the idea of her having to belay Jim, but he's also clearly aware that it's the best plan.

One thing she's grateful for is that this first drop is only about sixty or seventy feet. It'll cover a decent amount of the descent, but it's not too scary for Jim to deal with. She lets Jim belay Carter, and a few short moments later, Carter is standing at the bottom. He waves at them to lower the packs, and once they're down to Carter, Alicia turns to Jim.

She gets set up to belay him and tries to give him one more pep talk. "Just like I told you, Jim, you don't have to go fast. Lower yourself over the edge, straighten your legs, keep them at waist level and slowly walk your way down the cliff. Take it easy feeding the rope, do it nice and slow. You can do this."

He swallows hard as he steps up to the edge and turns around. "OK. What was it you said earlier?" She gives him a quizzical look, and he offers a game smile in return. "Now I remember. Don't drop me."

She snorts and rolls her eyes. "See you down there, Shannon."

He nods and calls out that he's on belay. Slowly but surely, he manages to follow her instructions and walk himself down to the ground next to Carter. Once he's clear, she follows, making it down with just a few pushes off of the wall. The only thing she doesn't like is that she has to leave some of the equipment behind, the anchors up top. But, they should have plenty to get down, so she puts it out of her mind.

A little over an hour later, Alicia is relieved to see the path widen out into a broad, flat area. There's a small overhang that will provide a little cover, something Alicia's glad of, given that the wind has picked up a little. They're basically on a small shelf, and the next part of the trip, which they'll take in the morning, is another rappel, this one a lot longer than the first. She just hopes his first go round helped Jim build a little confidence.

Also, for the first time today, they get a really lucky break. There are a few small, dead trees in the clear area, enough for them to hack up and make into a small fire. As dusk settles, she feels a slight chill creeping into her bones, and she's looking forward to a little warmth and some food, even if it's just the Terra Nova version of military rations.

She hasn't seen any predators, or any dinos at all, for that matter, but she and Jim are each going to sit up on watch for half of the night. She wants Carter to sleep. He may try to fight her on that, but she thinks she can bully him into taking it easy.

After they eat, she and Jim put together a makeshift little tent, a space blanket strung up along one of the ropes. It's not much, but it's a wind break. Alicia is taking the first watch, so she gets Carter settled down and gives him a shot of pain medication. It's telling to her that he doesn't protest at all. It's probably nine hours to sunrise, so she tells Jim to get some sleep and that she'll wake him in about four-and-a-half hours.

As she sits by their small fire, all she can think about is how much she misses Nathaniel and Gracie, something she knows is a little sad, given how recently she saw and talked to them. Even when OTG, she's become used to being able to talk to at least Nathaniel every day, and it feels strange not to talk to him tonight.

Not quite four hours later, Alicia goes tense at the sound of someone or something stirring. Her hand goes immediately to her thigh and whips out her pistol before she sees that it's Jim. She puts her gun away. "What's up, Shannon? You have another half hour."

He shakes his head. "You should sleep. I think Carter is cold, but as much as I care about the guy, I just can't make myself do the whole shared body heat thing with him."

Alicia has to laugh softly at the grimace of disgust at the very idea of having to get too close to Carter. "OK, Shannon. Let me know if you get too tired, though."

They bid each other good night, and after slipping off to the corner of their ledge that they designated as the latrine earlier, she moves up into their improvised tent. Carter is there, curled on his good side. From where she stands, she sees that Jim was right – Carter is shivering slightly.

She sighs and gets another blanket. She places it over Carter, positions her small pack next to him to use as a pillow and she pulls the blanket gently from his back. As she slides under the blanket, tucking up behind him, she feels him stir a little. "Wash?"

"You're freezing, Carter. Just go back to sleep." She curls herself up into his back, pressing herself against him.

He mumbles, "Jeez, Alicia, I can't believe you're getting fresh with an injured man."

"Shut up, Carter."

"Yes, ma'am."

Even as they banter back and forth, she can feel him relaxing. "Do you need another shot, Carter?"

"No, I'm OK. But you're right. I'm cold." His voice is laced with fatigue and pain. Instead of replying, she just tucks in as close as she can behind him, one arm slipping around his waist.

"Sleep, big brother." She listens to the sound of the wind as she feels his breathing even out again. Before she closes her eyes and succumbs to the tiredness that has crept into her, she tosses out a prayer that tomorrow is easier and less trouble-fraught than today was. That's her last thought as sleep takes her.


	4. Chapter 4

**Author's Note: **Last time, reminder – I'm not a rock climber, so I apologize for anything inaccurate here. I did my best with my imagination + Google.

Note, this is set in the context of my other stories, but relatively unnecessary to read those for this to make sense – just be aware that in my context now, Wash and Taylor are married and have a little girl named Gracie, and the Sixers have come back to Terra Nova.

**Disclaimer is as usual – no profit, not mine (except Gracie, of course), just borrowing.**

_It is impossible to make anything foolproof because fools are so ingenious._- Murphy's Second Corollary

_The Next Morning, Terra Nova_

As Maddy and Zoe play with Gracie just out of earshot, Nathaniel stands at the gate, leaning on his crutches. "Doc, are you sure you want to be the one to go?"

Elisabeth nods. "Yes, Taylor. Zoe will be fine with Maddy, and I want to be there for them. We don't know how serious the injuries could become." She fights back tears, clearly still upset by what's happening.

He gives her a sympathetic look and his voice drops so only she can hear him. "Shannon will be fine, Elisabeth. Alicia will look after him."

She takes a deep breath and places a hand on his arm and squeezes. "I know that, but who's looking after Alicia? With Jim so very out of his element and Carter injured, she's having to take care of both of them. She's my best friend, almost like a younger sister, not to mention the fact that my son-in-law will be devastated if something happens to her. And I've come to care for Carter because of Skye. I'm not just going for Jim, Nathaniel. I'm going for all of them, and I'm going for you and Gracie too. You're my family, as far as I'm concerned."

He blinks at her words, then puts one of his crutches to the side, leaning it against the waiting rover, and gives her a hug. "Thank you, Elisabeth."

"You're welcome." She steps back and grabs his crutch, handing it back to him. "Now you stay on these, do you hear me? I have spies, and they will gleefully rat you out if you fail to behave." She smiles at him as he rolls his eyes, and her eyes soften. "Is Gracie OK?"

He frowns slightly, looking over at her. "No. She doesn't do well when either of us is OTG, but, and this doesn't bother me at all, it's worse when it's Alicia. Gracie is so connected to her. They're just on the same wavelength. She clings to me a lot when Alicia is OTG, which, don't get me wrong, I don't mind. But I worry about her, especially if something happens to…" He swallows hard.

Elisabeth reaches up and squeezes his arm again. "She'll be fine. I've decided it. All of them will be fine, and woe to them who disobey me on this."

Giving her a game smile, he says, "Thank you, Elisabeth, for going and for adopting us. We _both _appreciate the latter more than you know."

"Nathaniel, you let us, and by 'us' I mean Jim and Zoe, stay here with minimal fuss, you made Jim an integral part of your team, and then Alicia sacrificed herself to save us. It's nothing to us, particularly because we all actually _like _the two of you. On top of that, you seem to have produced the world's most likeable child, one who is cute even when she's fussy." She smiles.

He snorts at that. "Try to tell her no some time. See how well that goes."

Elisabeth laughs lightly. "I'll leave the 'no' to you and Alicia. It's far more fun to be indulgent Auntie Wisabeth."

"Fair enough." He smiles at her as Reilly approaches with two younger soldiers and Guz and Mira following. The two young soldiers nervously salute Nathaniel and then go to load their things into the back of the rover.

Guz takes Elisabeth's pack and stows it in the back. He turns back to them, Mira coming up next to him and taking his hand, her free hand resting on her swollen stomach. Guz looks down at her, and she nods. He looks back to Nathaniel. "Sir, I'll go with Elisabeth if you need me to."

Nathaniel shakes his head. "No, Guz. First of all, with both Alicia and Shannon out there, I want to keep at least one other member of my command team here. But you also need to stay here with Mira. She and the baby are what's important right now."

"But sir," Guz begins, only to be cut off again by Nathaniel.

"No buts, Guz. Mira and your son are what matter right now. Reilly will look after Elisabeth."

Elisabeth nods in agreement. "Thank you for offering, Guz, but Taylor's right. I'll be fine with Reilly and these young men. They'll take care of me and get me there."

Guz relents, clearly with reservations. "OK, Doc, Commander. I'll stay, but if anything comes up…"

Mira speaks up for the first time, "If anything comes up, Isaac will be leading the charge."

Her voice is definite, brooking no arguments. Nathaniel has to laugh at the determination on her face. "No wonder you and Alicia get along so well. The two of you and this one," he indicates Elisabeth by inclining his head, "Are all stubborn as hell."

Elisabeth and Mira both grin at that. Mira offers, "And don't you forget it."

Reilly, done loading and checking the rover, steps up to them. "Sirs, Ma'am, Doc, we're loaded up and ready to go."

"That's my cue," Elisabeth says, "Guz, Mira, keep an eye on him. He's to be on those crutches for at least another week, and I want reports if he's not."

Nathaniel rolls his eyes again. "Yeah, yeah, off with you, Doc. Reilly, be careful."

"Yes, sir." The young woman slips behind the wheel of the rover as the two privates climb in the back and Elisabeth takes the front passenger seat.

Once they're set, Nathaniel calls up, "Open the gate." When it opens, Reilly gives him a nod, and she takes off, headed for the outpost in the mountains.

Nathaniel watches them quietly until he feels a hand on his uninjured leg. He looks down to see Gracie standing there, stuffed dinosaur in one hand, arms extended to him for him to pick her up. He leans a crutch against the fence, and he bends to lift Gracie. Her free hand grips his t-shirt while the other clutches her dinosaur close to her chest. "Auntie Wisabeth and Auntie Laurwa go get Mama?"

He hugs her to him. "Yeah, Bug. Aunt Elisabeth and Aunt Laura will bring your mama, Uncle Carter and Uncle Shannon home."

She leans her head on his shoulder. "'K, Daddy. I stay with you today? No school."

He knows Alicia will give him one of her stern looks when she finds out he kept Gracie out of school, but he just can't say no to the pleading note to her soft voice. "OK, little Bug. No school. You can spend the day with Daddy at work." He sees Maddy approach with Gracie's backpack in hand, and he inclines his head towards the command center. Using one crutch and keeping Gracie in his other arm, he makes his way slowly to his office, Maddy following behind with Gracie's bag and his other crutch.

**WT**WT**WT**

_OTG Team_

Alicia wakes up still curled against Carter's back. His breathing is even, so she knows he's still asleep, and she's happy to note that he's no longer shivering and his body doesn't feel feverish to her. She carefully rolls away from him and slips out of their makeshift tent. She feels stiff and sore, and when she tries to stretch her back, it catches painfully, letting her know that she probably will be aching for a while after bouncing against the harness yesterday.

She looks to the east in time to see the sun creep slowly into the sky. It looks as if it will be a clear day, but the wind is still high, something that worries her slightly. Jim still sits by the dying fire. He's dozing, but she can't blame him for that. They haven't seen any sign of dinosaurs, and many of the dinos are afraid of fire. She gathers a bit more wood and piles it on the fire, making Jim start.

He blinks at her and then blushes lightly, clearly embarrassed to have been caught sleeping on the job. "Sorry, Wash."

She shakes her head as she sits down next to him. "Don't worry about it, Shannon. It was a long day yesterday, and it'll be a long day today."

They turn when they hear the sound of rustling, and a moment later, a rumpled-looking Carter emerges from the tent. He shuffles over to them and gives Jim a look probably intended to tell him that he needs a moment, and Jim excuses himself.

Carter turns to her, a serious expression on his face. She lifts a questioning eyebrow at him as she passes him a bottle of water and a protein bar . "Carter?"

He drops into the spot Jim just vacated. "Thank you."

She furrows her brow in confusion. "For what?"

"Come on, Wash."

"Seriously, Carter, what are you talking about?" He gives her a funny look, and she suddenly realizes what he's thanking her for. "Carter, I didn't do anything extraordinary. It was cold, you're injured, I did the only thing I could to help, particularly as a medic. Are you telling me that if our positions were reversed, you wouldn't have done the same? And for the record, I was cold too, so I actually reaped a little benefit there myself."

She shoots him a smirk. "But one observation, man, you really need a shower."

He laughs and rolls his eyes, elbowing her in the side. "You're not exactly fresh as a daisy yourself, little sister."

"I'd retaliate for that, but I don't want to hurt your ribs." She delivers a firm kick to his ankle, making him grunt. "That works, though."

"Do I need to separate you two?"

They look up to see an amused-looking Jim standing there. Alicia grins. "He started it."

"Hey! You're the one who said I smell bad!" He manages to sound completely outraged at that.

"You _do _smell bad."

Jim laughs. "You two are worse than my kids. This is like listening to Josh and Maddy, times about a thousand."

"Thanks, Shannon." Carter does his best to sound put upon.

Alicia sighs a little. She's enjoying this, but she knows they need to get going now that the sun is up. "Well, boys, let's pack up. Carter, do you need any pain meds?"

They both sober. Carter shakes his head. "Not until we're to the plateau, Wash."

"OK, but I'm injecting you the minute we're down, understood?" She gives him a stern look.

"By the time we're down, I'm pretty sure I'll be begging you to inject me."

She nods, and they all silently begin to pack up as they munch on protein bars from the large backpack. Once her pack and the small duffel are packed and Carter and Jim are finishing packing everything else, she walks about thirty feet towards the ledge of the place they'll need to rappel to continue their descent down to the plateau.

When she gets to the ledge, she peers over and cringes. This one is going to be a lot harder for Jim. She steps back from the edge and thinks about it, knowing that he needs to do more than just walk down this. It's easily twice the distance of the first rappel, maybe a little more. The upside is that after this one, they've only got about seven hundred feet left. The hour walk after the first rappel yesterday afternoon was fairly steep, and they'd covered a significant amount of the descent then.

From what she can see, they'll have to hike down for a few more hours this morning, but if they move pretty efficiently, they'll be to the plateau by noon or a little earlier. The last rappel, though, which will take them to the plateau, is worrying her. From what she saw from up at the cave, it's going to be even longer than this one by fifty feet or so, and it's on the windward edge of the mountain. The breeze here is pretty stiff, but at least it's not gusty like it will be at the last cliff face.

"I can tell by the look on your face that I'm not going to like this, Wash." Jim's voice makes her turn around. He and Carter stand behind her, and she catches Carter's eye. He frowns in understanding, but he gives her an encouraging nod. They have to do this. If they had a chopper, this would be easy, as there's plenty of space for one here – but they don't have one, so this is what they can do.

"You're right, you're not going to, Shannon. This one is longer than I thought, and it's steeper. Walking down like you did before probably won't work."

Jim swallows hard. "So, I'm going to have to push off like you and Carter do?"

"Not exactly," Carter interjects, "You can still go slow, and your pushes can be a lot less forceful. Wash and I are experienced, and we know how to work the line and the gear. That's why we can do what we do. I'd also venture to guess that Wash had to learn in boot camp."

"I did," she confirms, "We all did, even those of us training to be medics. It's what made me take up climbing as a hobby. Now, let's gear up, and Shannon, I'll talk you through the motions for this. Then, I'm going to have you watch Carter go."

In silence, they all gear up, and Alicia gets the lines tied together, needing two of their four good lines for this distance. As she drives the anchors in with a rock hammer, she can almost feel the tension radiating off of Carter and Jim. She knows they're nervous, but there's little to be done about it.

She spends the next ten minutes talking Jim through the motions of the rappel, and then he watches as Carter goes down with Alicia belaying. They run the packs down second, and then it's time for Jim to go. "You can do this, Jim. You're going to be fine."

He peers back over the edge and cringes. "I suppose now would be a bad time to mention that I really have never been crazy about heights."

She snorts. "Good call." Her face softens. "Nice and easy, Jim, whenever you're ready."

He nods and closes his eyes. He stands there, clearly trying to calm his breathing, before opening his eyes and calling on belay. She sets her body, and he steps back off the edge. As she feels the pressure on the rope, she can faintly hear Carter encouraging Jim.

It takes several minutes, but she eventually feels slack in the line, and she breathes out a sigh of relief. She steps up to the edge, and she leans forward to see them below, both waving at her. She waves back, and then she sets up for her own descent. She hates that they once again have to leave anchors behind, but they still have plenty left for the last rappel.

When she's down, Jim is actually wearing a small grin. She unknots the rope and looks at Carter as she pulls the lines free of the anchors up top. "So, I take it he did OK?"

Carter nods, and he and Jim help her coil up the rope and stow it in the large pack. "He actually did pretty great, all things considered."

"Good." She looks at Jim. "Just don't get cocky. And I mean that. The last one will make this one look like a cakewalk, mainly because of the wind."

His smile fades a little. She feels bad about it, but she doesn't want him overconfident. "I'm sorry, Shannon. It won't be horrible, but it's going to be tricky. We have wind here, but no real gusts. From what I could see from above, the last face we have to go down is a lot more exposed, and its orientation is such that the wind might be whipping and gusting a lot more than it is here."

She puts a hand on his arm. "Please don't freak out about it. You know we'll make sure you make it down in one piece. Just don't think that this was as hard as it gets."

Carter nods. "Wash is right. The last drop is the reason we couldn't climb up. It's too damned sheer. Even a professional climber would struggle with it, and without some serious equipment, it'd be as close to impossible as a climb can get."

"If you guys need me to not freak out, you really should stop talking now." Jim has paled slightly.

Alicia cringes. "Sorry. Shutting up." She hands him his pack before going over and helping Carter immobilize his arm. In no time, they're making their way down again, following the path. It's tight, and they stay pretty close together. Carter is back in the lead, Alicia back on the six, and they walk in nervous silence.

After about an hour and a half, Alicia realizes that they're actually making better time than she expected. They get to a sheer place in the path, and while it's bad enough for Carter to take off his sling so that he can balance as needed, it also gives them a clear line of sight to the last rappel. It's no more than a fifteen minute walk away. Once they've gotten through the narrow, sheer drop off part of the path, it widens a bit again, and they pause for a short water break.

As they all have some water and more protein bars, Alicia digs out the comm that they have. She slips it on her ear and gives it a tap, thinking that it's worth a shot. "Washington to Reynolds, come in, Reynolds." She's met with static, but she decides to go ahead and keep it on, just in case the others get within range soon.

"Are we that close?" Jim's voice is apprehensive, and she can tell he'd be OK with it if the answer to his question was no.

"Almost. I figure we're less than fifteen to the last rappel." She gives him a look that she hopes is reassuring.

He gives her a wry smile in return. "Could we not call it 'the last rappel?'" That earns him a snort from Carter, who hands his water bottle back to Jim and starts walking again.

Jim shoots Alicia a worried look, clearly concerned about Carter, who has been uncharacteristically quiet. Alicia shrugs. "He's hurting. I imagine he's ready to be done with our little adventure du jour."

"You're probably right. Silent Carter is just a little disconcerting, though."

"Agreed, but I can't force him to take another shot, and I know why he doesn't want one."

Sighing, Jim says, "Fair enough." They start after Carter. "Hell of a couple of days, eh, Wash?"

She huffs out a laugh. "You can say that again."

As they walk, Alicia hears some static in her ear. She can't make out an actual voice yet, but it tells her that Reynolds is probably trying to call. A few minutes later, it scratches again, but this time, she can hear words. "Reynolds to Washington. Come in, Wash. Wash?"

She hits the comm again, replying to Reynolds just as they get to the cliff for their final rappel down. Carter is sitting there waiting for them, and he looks up as Alicia says, "Mark, this is Wash, do you copy?"

She hears him breathe out, "Oh thank God." After a moment, he says, "Wash, good to hear your voice. Is everyone OK?"

"We're a little worse for wear, but we're all right, Mark. Where are you? I don't see you on the plateau?" She peers down the cliff.

"Maybe a click away. We should be there pretty soon. It's just slow going. Are you down?"

"Negative," she shakes her head, "We have to rappel down a cliff face to the plateau. We're about to start. Carter should be down by the time you get to the plateau. Then Shannon, then me." As she talks, she kneels down and begins pounding in the anchors, and Carter and Jim get the rope ready.

"Copy that, Wash. It's just me, Dunham and Dr. Wallace here, by the way, in one of the rhinos. We left the others at the outpost to wait for the doc and Reilly."

She rocks back on her heels. "What do you mean 'wait for the doc and Reilly?'"

Jim and Carter look up at her, and instead of Reynolds, Malcolm replies, "It was my idea, Wash. Just in case both you and Carter were hurt, I made him ask Taylor to send us a doctor or another medic."

"Who is it, Malcolm? Who did Nathaniel send?"

Malcolm sighs, "I'm pretty sure you already know, Wash. She insisted."

"Understood. Hopefully we won't need her." Jim huffs out a breath and looks concerned at Alicia's use of the word "her." "We're about to start rappelling down, so we'll talk to you both soon."

"Be careful, OK, Wash?" Reynolds comes back on the line.

"Always am, kid. Washington out." She ends the call and looks up at Shannon and Carter. "Malcolm was worried that Carter and I might both be injured, so he asked Nathaniel to send out another medic or a doctor. Elisabeth insisted on being the one to come. She and Reilly will be at the outpost."

"I'm not going to pretend to be surprised, Wash." Jim rolls his eyes. "Let's just get done with this. At least I get to see my wife soon."

Alicia drives the last anchor, and they run three of the ropes knotted together through them. She also knots the remaining two ropes, one good one and one her rope from yesterday, together. They'll be almost long enough to reach the ground, ending maybe twenty feet short, give or take. She wants them as a backup line, just in case.

They all get into their harnesses, and Jim sets up to belay Carter. Alicia decided that she wants to be able to watch Carter descend, so she can get an idea of the best route down for Jim to take. He gets in position, and Alicia says, "Take it easy, Carter. And when we send the packs down, take a pain killer."

"Once you're down, I will, Alicia. I'm anchoring from the bottom, and I'm staying sharp until we're done." He levels a look at her. "No arguments."

She holds up her hands. "Understood. Be careful, big brother."

He nods, calls on belay, and he disappears over the edge. Alicia leans down, and she watches as he goes down. He hits one slick spot, and he struggles a little, sliding to the right. The wind also hits him and changes his course a few times, worrying Alicia. When his feet connect with the ground below, she lets out a breath she didn't realize she'd been holding.

The rope goes slack, and Jim crouches down next to her. She gives him the path to follow, and then she says, "Shannon, the wind looks bad. Just head down as quickly and carefully as you can, and don't freak if it pushes you off track a bit. It won't send you far."

He nods nervously. "Got it. Let's just do this."

"OK, Shannon. Be careful." She gets in position, and with a nod, he calls on belay and steps off.

She hates that she can't watch him go down, but she once again hears Carter calling encouragement to Jim. All seems to be going all right for a moment, her feeling constant tension and movement on the rope, when a strong gust whips in. It nearly knocks her over, and a second later, a hard jerk on the rope.

The pull on the rope is so hard that it knocks her to her knees, and suddenly, she hears yelling from Carter below. She keeps her grip on the rope, but she leans forward. What she sees makes her gasp. The strong gust must have knocked Jim hard into the cliff face, as he's upended and shaking his head as if dazed. He's easily still eighty or ninety feet up. She feels the rope give slightly, and she knows she has to go down and help. "Carter, can you hold it?" She yells as loud as she can.

She feels more tension on the line, and a faint, "I've got him, Wash!"

She slips her hands off of Shannon's line, and she quickly and efficiently guides the extra rope through the anchors. Getting it well secured, she once again checks Shannon's position, and she takes a deep breath and steps off, hoping that her rope from yesterday will take her weight.

In a few pushes, she's almost to Jim. She pauses in her descent to line up with him, and she looks down to see him become aware of his position. He starts to twist around. "Shannon, stay still. I'm coming. If you move too much, Carter can't hold you steady."

He immediately freezes, and she pushes off one more time, coming to rest right above him. She slowly lets out some rope, wishing she had her gloves. In a moment, she's level with him. She sees that he has the rope tangled around one leg, so she carefully reaches out to fix it, and then she uses her hands and rights him.

He's clearly shaken, but he grits out a, "Thanks."

"No problem, Shannon. Now finish going down. You're more than half way there."

He gives her a shaky nod, and he pushes off while releasing his rappelling device. In under a minute, his boots hit the ground. Now, she gets to figure out what to do next. She looks down to Carter, and he yells up, "Twenty-five." She signs, knowing that means that she'll run out of rope about twenty-five feet short.

She eyes the rocks below, and she notes that it looks like there are a few more footholds and possible places to grip over to her right, so she takes a deep breath and pushes off in that direction. After a few pushes, she gets to within five feet of the end of her line and stops, not wanting to hit the end, knotted or not. She hears Reynolds' voice in her ear, but she just mutters, "A little busy right now, kid," under her breath and ignores him.

She finds a solid foothold for each foot, and she sets them and then finds a place to grip with one hand. With her free hand, she releases herself from her rope. Once it's clear, she carefully begins a slow climb down the last thirty feet.

Carter is below her telling her the locations of footholds and grips he can see, and she covers the first ten feet pretty efficiently. She's reaching for the next foothold when another gust comes up from nowhere. It's so strong that it knocks her feet from their holds and flips her from front to back. She manages to keep a hold with one hand, and she dangles about eighteen feet up.

"Wash!" She looks down to see a frightened look on the now-present Reynolds' face.

She sets her face in grim determination. She swings around and gets her other hand back into a hold, and she seeks a foothold. For a moment, she thinks she has it, but then another gust comes up, and she feels her hands lose their grip. All of the voices below her call out in concern as she drops towards them, but she just thinks, "Try to roll, Alicia."

As she hits the ground hard, she tries to curl and distribute the impact, but she feels her right knee give completely and she crumples, her momentum rolling her violently. As her knee screams at her, her body rolls, and the last thing she sees is the rock she's about to collide with. She hits it hard, and darkness closes in on her.


	5. Chapter 5

**Author's Note: **And so this one wraps up! This is a wee bit long, but it didn't make sense to split it up.

Note, this is set in the context of my other stories, but relatively unnecessary to read those for this to make sense – just be aware that in my context now, Wash and Taylor are married and have a little girl named Gracie, and the Sixers have come back to Terra Nova.

**Disclaimer is as usual – no profit, not mine (except Gracie, of course), just borrowing.**

_Smile...tomorrow will be worse._- The Murphy Philosophy

"Wash? Wash, are you in there? Come on, Wash, you need to open your eyes." Someone is shaking her gently. She can hear a voice above her, but she can't make out whose it is. All she can tell for sure is that it's annoying, which leads her to a realization. She grits out, "Damn, Shannon, give me a minute."

She hears a snort next to her, and she guesses that is Carter. That's confirmed a moment later when, her hearing becoming clearer again as the fog lifts from her head, Carter asks in a concerned voice, "If you think you're OK to move, can you roll to your back, Wash?"

"Bet you say that to all the girls, Carter." Even as she smarts off to him, she tries to move. She shifts her legs and immediately stops moving, pain in her right knee blinding her momentarily.

Her sharp intake of breath clearly alerts them to a problem. "Wash?" Carter sounds even more concerned now.

"Ow." She takes some deep breaths, and the pain starts to ebb. She opens her eyes, looking up at Carter. He's on his knees in front of her, his left arm still unrestrained, hands hovering above her as if he wants to help but is afraid to hurt her. "I either broke my right leg or I blew out my knee. And you should be back in your sling."

He rolls his eyes at her before looking up at Jim. "Go get the large pack, Shannon. I need the first aid kit." He turns back to Alicia. "Can you finish turning over?"

She nods. "But I want to sit up, and I should probably be in a C-collar just in case."

Carter looks to the other side of her. "Shannon, see if there's a collar in the pack, and if not, check the rhino." Jim nods and opens the pack. "Reynolds, once she gets to her back, sit down behind her to help her sit up. You get to be her backrest."

"Yes, sir!"

Alicia chuckles lightly at Reynolds calling Carter "sir." She then starts to roll again, this time taking care to move her right leg as little as possible. Once she gets to her back, Mark gets behind her while Jim and Malcolm, who appear on either side of her, help her get to a sitting position. A moment later, she's reclined back against Mark. She can feel that he's a little anxious, and she sighs. "I know you want to hug me, Mark. Just get it over with."

The assembled group laughs, and Mark does just that, wrapping his arms around her from behind and hugging her tight to his chest. After about thirty seconds, she murmurs, "I'm hurting, but I'm OK, kid."

He releases the pressure on her, but he keeps an arm wrapped protectively around her waist. She is momentarily amused by how many overprotective men seem to follow her around. Her light smile fades as her knee begins to throb. "Someone needs to get my right shoe off and cut off the leg of my fatigues."

They all seem to cringe, but Carter nods. Jim hands him a C-collar from the rhino, which he gets around her neck. Then, he moves around her to get to her feet. He gently removes her climbing shoe, but even the minimal jostling makes her flinch. "Sorry, Wash." She shakes her head that it's OK. He holds out a hand to Malcolm, who has been rummaging through the first aid kit.

Malcolm hands him a pair of sharp looking scissors, and Alicia takes a deep breath and closes her eyes. One arm comes to rest on Mark's arm wrapped around her, and she joins their hands. "Mark, you tell me if I squeeze too hard, OK?"

He must understand what she means, because he replies softly, "Squeeze as hard as you need to, Wash. I can take it."

As she feels the first pull on her pant leg, she squeezes her eyes shut even tighter. Pain radiates out from her knee as he works, and by the time Carter is done, she guesses that she may have broken every little bone in Mark's hand. When Carter swears quietly, she opens her eyes.

Blinking back the tears of pain that have formed in them, she looks down at her leg, and she echoes Carter's curse. Her knee is already swollen to almost twice its normal size, and there is bruising and discoloration. She looks up at him. "Torn ACL."

He nods, giving her a rueful smile. "That's what it looks like. No wonder it hurts like a bitch."

"So, what do we do?" Mark's concerned voice comes from behind her, and she pats his arm.

"Do we have any cold packs?" She looks at Carter. "We need to ice it and wrap it. There's a compression bandage in there," she gestures to the pack, "That's what we need to use." He starts to dig in the pack, clearly favoring his left side. "And Carter?" He looks up. "You need to immobilize your arm again, and we both need a pain shot. Malcolm or Jim can wrap my knee."

He looks for a moment as if he wants to argue, but then he just nods. Malcolm takes the pack from him and digs out the things she asked for. Malcolm passes the pain meds and the hypodermics to Carter. The latter aren't fancy like what Elisabeth has in the infirmary. They're just old fashioned syringes, better for use in the field. Carter measures out a dose, and he injects himself in the muscle of his left arm, making Jim wince.

He gets another hypo and loads the dose. "Where do you want it, Wash?"

She thinks for a moment, and then she looks down at her exposed leg, her fatigues cut off at mid-thigh. "Quad." She indicates her quad muscle with her hand. It'll hurt, but she doesn't care. A moment later, she feels the cool touch of an alcohol wipe and then the sting of the needle. It hurts, but the relief is quick. Once the pain meds are on board, she nods to Jim and Malcolm, and they get her leg wrapped. Dunham stands by, gun at the ready, keeping an eye out for predators.

Her leg feeling pleasantly numb, they get her to her good foot. She tries to hop, but Mark isn't having it. He just lifts her into his arms, careful to keep her leg straight, and he carries her to the rhino and settles her in the back. Carter climbs in and sits behind her, acting, as Reynolds had, as her backrest. Jim and Dunham climb in behind them, and Malcolm and Reynolds get up front, Reynolds behind the wheel.

As they head back to the outpost, she's glad for the pain meds, as they help with her leg and with her pounding headache from the rock she hit. Alicia looks over at Jim, and for the first time, she realizes that he has blood on his cheek and he's favoring his side. "Shannon, are _you _OK?"

He grimaces a little. "I think so. I hit my head and side when that wind gust got me all twisted up in the rope, but it's just more uncomfortable than anything else."

She rolls her eyes. "Get over here and raise your shirt, Shannon."

It appears that he's going to argue, but she levels a look at him that tells him she's not in the mood for a fight. "It wasn't a request."

He comes over, sitting where she can reach him and raising his shirt. Carter whistles out loud and Alicia's eyes widen. "Shannon, this is just uncomfortable? You're one big bruise. And only some of them are new. Why didn't you say something about this when we asked you to carry the pack?" As she speaks, she gently feels along his ribs. At least two of them feel cracked.

When she stops feeling around, he lowers his shirt and looks at them both. "Who else was going to carry it? It was too heavy for you to carry for that long, Wash, and you know your back was killing you. And Carter obviously couldn't do it. I was just generally sore, but I was all right – I just did this to my side on the last rappel. So, am I going to live?"

Alicia lets out an exasperated sigh. "Probably. But you need to stay pretty still until your wife clears you. It feels like you might have cracked a couple of ribs. I'm assuming no lung puncture, seeing as you're able to talk and aren't coughing up blood."

"Gee, that's great to hear," he deadpans. Carter and Dunham both laugh at that.

"Glad to be of service." Suddenly, she realizes how tired she is. Since Carter has his right side to her, she leans further into him. "Hope you don't mind being a pillow, Carter."

Jim shifts to get next to them, his hand coming to rest on her good ankle. He looks up towards Dunham, but the young soldier is leaned forward, talking to Malcolm and Reynolds in the front. Turning back to Carter and Alicia, he says, his voice serious, "Thank you for getting me down." They both start to speak, but he waves a hand at them. "Don't tell me it's nothing. It's not nothing. I'd probably be dead without you two."

After a beat, Alicia says quietly, "You're welcome."

Carter pulls her a little tighter to him, moving to get them both more comfortable. "What Wash said. One bit of bad news, if either of you fall asleep and the ride back takes more than an hour, I have to wake you up. You both hit your head."

Alicia nods sleepily, and she sees Jim, his hand still resting on her ankle, do the same. Carter relaxes behind her, and not long after, she allows herself to drift off to sleep.

The feeling of the rhino lurching to a stop wakes Alicia, who tries to shake her head but is thwarted by her C-collar. She blinks, and she feels Carter move behind her. She mumbles, "Are we there yet?" That earns her snorts from both Carter and Shannon, who are both awake. She still feels groggy. "How long have I been out?"

Carter is the one to answer. "Almost ninety minutes. I was going to wake you up to check on you, but Reynolds promised me we were almost to the outpost. It appears the kid was on the up and up."

That's confirmed when the rhino door opens, and they see Reilly standing there. She's wearing a concerned look that prompts Jim to say, "Wow, we must look really bad. Reilly's eyeing us like she's wondering which one of us is the closest to death."

Reilly gets a sheepish look on her face at that. "Sorry. But you all do look pretty worse for wear. Alicia catches her eye, and Reilly adds, "Ma'am."

Reynolds comes around to the door, leaning in and lifting Alicia again before she can protest. "Kid, I can walk."

Jim emerges behind them, followed by Carter and then Dunham. Jim looks around. "Where's Elisabeth?"

Reilly motions towards the outpost. "Mr. Shannon, the doc is inside checking in with the colony. We just arrived."

Jim looks back at Alicia and Carter, and Alicia says, "Go on, Shannon. We're right behind you."

Reynolds follows Jim as he goes into the outpost, and, at Alicia's direction, he carries her to the communications room. Carter doesn't follow, just stops in the outpost common area, dropping onto a sofa.

When they get there, Jim, with Elisabeth hugging his waist, is talking to someone over the radio via a headset. "Yes, we're all relatively OK. Elisabeth needs to take a look at all of us, though." He looks up when Mark enters the small room with Alicia. Elisabeth releases Jim and, eyeing Alicia's wrapped knee, she gets two chairs positioned so that Mark can sit her in one with her foot and leg up on the other.

Once she's situated, Jim says, "Here she is, Taylor."

Jim hands Alicia the headset. As she slips it on, everyone leaves, Mark closing the door behind them. She hits the transmit switch. "Nathaniel?"

"Are you all right? Shannon said you got pretty banged up helping him." She can hear the near-panic in his voice.

"I'm OK, Nathaniel. Though we're going to be quite a pair, both of us hobbling around."

"What happened? And I mean the whole story, Alicia."

She sighs and starts to recount the last two days to him. At his sharp intake of breath when she confirms how close she came to dying, she just moves past it as quickly as she can. Mid-story, Elisabeth slips in with a small hand scanner and a bottle of water. While Alicia continues to talk, Elisabeth removes the C-collar and quickly scans Alicia's neck. When she stops, Alicia looks up at Elisabeth who gives her a nod and a thumbs up before slipping back out.

As she recounts the events of this morning, she can almost feel Nathaniel's tension over the radio. When she's done, finishing with Elisabeth clearing her neck, Nathaniel lets out a breath. "Alicia, once you're home, except when I absolutely know you're somewhere safe, I'm not letting you out of my sight for a while. You know that, right?"

She huffs out a laugh. "I know."

"How bad is your knee?"

"It's not good. Carter and I both think it looks like I blew my ACL. I pretty much have no doubt that Elisabeth is going to have to surgically repair it." She pauses. "How's Gracie, Nathaniel?"

"She's OK. You'll be mad, but I didn't make her go to school today. We haven't told her anything, but she's a bright kid, Alicia. She knew something was wrong when Elisabeth left with Reilly this morning, and judging by the death grip she had on her dinosaur, she was scared. I couldn't say no when she asked to stay with me." He sounds apologetic, but she doesn't mind.

"I'm not mad, Nathaniel. Is she close by?"

He chuckles softly. "Give me a minute."

After that, she hears some thumping around and a door opening. His voice calls, "Zoe?" and after that, it's just muffled voices and then more thumping.

Alicia goes warm all over a moment later. "Mama?"

For some reason, just hearing Gracie's voice makes her emotional. She swallows hard and blinks back tears. "Hi, little Bug. Are you having fun with Daddy today?"

"Yes! Me and Zoe help him work! We sort pwexes!"

She can't help but smile at that. "Really? I bet he's really happy to have you two there to help, Bug."

"Uh huh. Mama, you home soon? Tonight?"

Alicia's heart breaks a little at that, even though Gracie sounds all right. "Not tonight, my Bug, but tomorrow. But Mama may have to sleep at Aunt Elisabeth's infirmary tomorrow." She doesn't want to scare Gracie, but she wants to prepare her.

Gracie sounds alarmed. "Mama hurt? Mama sick?"

"I'm OK, Bug, I just fell down and hurt my leg. Aunt Elisabeth will need to fix it for me when we get home, and she'll probably want me to stay at the infirmary just to make sure it's getting better."

That seems to mollify Gracie. "'K, Mama. I bwing you dino to sleep with so you not be scared."

That brings the tears back to Alicia's eyes. "I'd love that, little Bug."

"Mama, you call back tonight and tell me a stowy?"

"Definitely, Bug. I love you."

"Love you too, Mama."

A moment later, she hears Nathaniel's voice again. "You OK?"

She sniffles, swiping at her eyes. "I almost never saw her again, Nathaniel. I didn't think about it that way until right now." Elisabeth comes back in, clearly anxious to get a look at her. She looks concerned at Alicia's tears, but Alicia just shakes her head.

He sighs. "I wish I knew what to say to make that better, but I don't."

"Don't worry about it. I'm sorry, Nathaniel. I'm just tired and over-emotional. Elisabeth is here, and I know she wants to look at my knee, so I should probably go." She hates feeling this vulnerable, and he knows it.

"Hey you, stop that." His voice is soft. "You're allowed to be upset now, Alicia, and you know you're safe doing that with me."

She sniffles again, and Elisabeth puts a gentle hand on her shoulder. "I know, Nathaniel. I just don't like to feel like this. I don't like to feel scared."

"I know, my Alicia. Do you have any idea how much I love you?"

She smiles at that. "Some. But you can show me when I get home."

"I'll hold you to that, Lieutenant."

"I look forward to it, sir." Falling back into their usual, flirty routine helps lift her spirits a little.

"We'll call you this evening, Alicia. Seven o'clock?"

"I'll be here, Nathaniel. I love you."

"Love you too, Alicia. Terra Nova out."

She pulls off the headset, and Elisabeth pulls up another chair and sits next to her. "Are you all right, Alicia?"

Alicia gives her a wry smile. "I'm fine. Just apparently needed to fall apart a little."

Elisabeth nods. "Jim told me he doesn't know how you kept it together after what happened. He said you were upset for a couple of minutes and then just snapped back to normal. I'd say you were due a breakdown."

"I didn't have a choice, Elisabeth. Carter was hurt, and Shannon isn't a climber."

"Just because you had to do it doesn't mean it was easy, Alicia," Elisabeth pauses, "And thank you for looking after him."

Alicia reaches out and takes Elisabeth's hand. "You're welcome, but hell, Elisabeth, if he hadn't reacted as quickly as he did, I wouldn't have been there to look after him."

Elisabeth flinches. "It was really that close? I thought maybe he was just exaggerating."

Alicia shakes her head. "He wasn't. I was falling, and it was a long way down."

Elisabeth is silent for a moment before blinking as if to clear her head. "Understood. Now, let me see your knee. And Jim and Carter said that you hit your head as well."

Alicia lets Elisabeth fuss over her, scanning her knee and examining the lump on her head. All Alicia wants to do is sleep all afternoon, talk to Gracie and Nathaniel again tonight, and then sleep some more.

_Terra Nova, Twenty-Four Hours Later_

As they pass under the gate, Alicia breathes a sigh of relief. The pain meds Elisabeth gave her before they left the outpost are helping, but she's still stiff and sore and ready to be home. Of course, per her conversation with Elisabeth and Nathaniel last night before she told a story to Gracie (with sound effects and commentary from Shannon and Carter), they are heading straight to the infirmary.

At first, Alicia balked at that, but when Elisabeth pointed out that she would either end up being carried or riding in a wheelchair from the gate to the infirmary, she relented. It's bad enough that she'll be on crutches for a while; she doesn't need people to see Reynolds carrying her through the colony.

At least the surgery needed on Alicia's knee is a relatively simple thing with the equipment Elisabeth has. She'll need some PT on it, but the repair itself is easy, and Alicia will be up on crutches tomorrow and just in a large brace by the end of next week. She know that will annoy Nathaniel who may still be on crutches when Alicia is cleared to stop using hers.

When they get to the infirmary, Reynolds barely gets the door open before a small raven-haired blur barrels through it. At the last moment, Elisabeth is able to steer Gracie in such a way that when she attaches herself to Alicia, she doesn't jar her leg. "Mama."

Alicia wraps her arms tight around Gracie. "Hi, baby Bug. I missed you."

Gracie's arms wind around Alicia's neck. "Missed Mama too."

Reynolds clears his throat, and Elisabeth says gently, "Gracie, we need to take your mama inside."

Gracie sniffles and tightens her grip on Alicia. Nathaniel, standing just outside the rhino, says, "Bug, you can hug mama again once we get her into the infirmary."

This time, Gracie actually whimpers. "Stay with Mama."

Alicia shoots a look at Reynolds, and he gives her a quick nod. Elisabeth gets out of his way, and he says, "Hang on tight, Bug." He then scoops Alicia up, Gracie attached to her, and carries them both through the door.

As he puts them down on a biobed, Alicia's injured leg stretched out in front of her, Alicia murmurs, "Thanks, Mark."

He just smiles. "Any time, Wash." He pats Gracie on the head, and with a quick nod to Nathaniel after his dismissal, he disappears out the door, likely in search of Maddy.

As Carter and Jim both enter and are directed to other biobeds for full scans, Nathaniel approaches Alicia's bed. He perches on the edge of the bed, leaning his crutches against it. Reaching out with his hand, he cups her cheek and leans forward to drop a kiss on her forehead. "Welcome home."

She pulls one arm from around Gracie and covers his hand on her cheek with her hand. Instead of replying, she just entwines their fingers and nuzzles her face into his palm. The profound relief she feels at being home actually surprises her with its intensity, so she just sits there quietly, not trusting her own voice.

They sit there like that for a while, Gracie snuggled into Alicia and Nathaniel gently stroking her cheek with his thumb. Eventually, Elisabeth approaches, looking reluctant. "Alicia, I need to take care of your knee."

Gracie whimpers again and clings tighter to Alicia. She leans down to Gracie's ear. "Bug, can you sit with Daddy for me? Mama's knee really hurts, and Aunt Elisabeth can make it feel better."

With a sniffle, Gracie looks up at Elisabeth. "You fix Mama?"

Alicia and Nathaniel both chuckle at that, but Elisabeth (barely) maintains a serious expression. "I will, Gracie Bug."

Gracie eyes Elisabeth critically for a moment, and then she nods. "'K." She hugs Alicia again and then holds her arms out to Nathaniel. He lifts her onto his hip, and she holds tight to him.

Nathaniel and Gracie watch as Elisabeth runs a scan of Alicia's knee, and then two nurses help Alicia down into a wheelchair to take her back to a curtained off area. She won't even have to be sedated for the surgery. They give her a local instead. As she gets wheeled off, Gracie waves to her, and Nathaniel just mouths, "I love you" silently, making her smile and nod.

After her surgery is done, Alicia is moved into one of the curtained off areas towards the back of the infirmary. Nathaniel has some business to attend to, so he goes to the command center. Elisabeth offers to let Gracie stay with her, so he heads off alone, promising to return with dinner for all of them, Carter, Jim, Elisabeth and Skye included, shortly.

Alicia fell asleep after the surgery, feeling somewhat groggy from the pain medication. She wakes up after an hour or so to find Gracie curled into her left side, sound asleep, dinosaur clutched in her hand. That's not much of a surprise. What does surprise her is looking up to see Carter, arm immobilized again, and Jim sitting there playing gin on a table next to Alicia's bed.

"Guys?" She lifts an eyebrow at them. "What's going on?"

They both look up, surprised and somewhat sheepish. They look at each other, and eventually, Jim says, "We kind of got used to the three of us being together. Skye had to go do something for her mom, and Elisabeth was seeing to a few other patients, and we, well, we missed you, OK?"

With an amused look, she turns to Carter. "What? He's right. It was boring when Skye left. And it was too quiet out there."

After a moment, she says, "What're you playing?"

They both grin, and Jim pushes the table towards her bed. They pick up the cards, and Jim shuffles, dealing her in. An hour later, they're still sitting there, Gracie awake and kibitzing from the side. Most of her advice centers around how pretty she thinks the cards are. Her favorite is the queen of diamonds, which makes Carter and Jim bemoan the fate of the "poor guy who falls for her."

That makes Gracie look at them quizzically and ask, "Why I make guy fall down? Will he need Auntie Wisabeth to fix them like she fix Mama's knee?"

Nathaniel returns to the infirmary, and Skye follows behind him. He'd hated to leave Alicia, but he had some work to finish before taking the next few days off to spend with Alicia and Gracie. Skye met up with him in the market to get dinner for all of them at the infirmary. As they come in, they notice that Jim and Carter's beds are both empty. Elisabeth approaches, grinning and shaking her head. "You need to see this." She beckons to them to follow her.

Nathaniel and Skye exchange a confused look, but they follow Elisabeth, Skye first and Nathaniel, slowed down by his crutches, behind her. As they get to the curtained off area where he'd left a sleeping Alicia earlier, he hears a burst of laughter and Gracie's little voice saying, "Unca Shannon cheats!"

He just hears Alicia laugh as Jim sputters in response, and Carter interjects, "She's right, Shannon. You've been trying to peek at my cards and at the kid's cards. What kind of man cheats a not-quite-three-year-old at cards, I ask?"

Jim speaks up as Nathaniel gets to the area where the voices are coming from. "It's not cheating if you hold your cards where I can see them!"

"Seriously, Shannon? That's your excuse for cheating off my baby?" Alicia's voice is incredulous, but as Nathaniel leans forward, he can see that she has a teasing glint in her eye. Just as Elisabeth and Skye do, he gets a stupid grin on his face at the sight before them.

The four of them, Alicia in her bed with her leg stretched out, Gracie on the edge of the bed and Jim and Carter both in chairs, are crowded around the small table. Each of them holds a handful of cards, Gracie doing her best to manage hers.

Nathaniel eyes the configuration of cards, and realizing the answer, he still calls out, "So, what are you playing?"

Gracie turns with a grin. "Go Fish, Daddy! Mama helping me. Carter good but Unca Shannon cheats!"

"It's not…" Jim begins to protest when he is apparently leveled by a stern glare from Gracie. He huffs out a breath. "Fine. Maybe it's cheating. But the kid keeps beating me!"

They all laugh, and Gracie climbs down off of Alicia's bed and goes to Jim. She holds up her arms for him to pick her up. Once he settles her on his hip, she says, "S'OK, Unca Shannon. You no have to cheat to win. Gwacie let you win next time." That leads to another round of laughter from everyone assembled, and even Jim has the good grace to laugh along with them.

A while later, Nathaniel, Alicia and Gracie are alone again. At Nathaniel's insistence, there's a cot set up next to Alicia's bed. Elisabeth had tried to convince him to take Gracie home to sleep, but Nathaniel was resolute.

They all got changed for bed, Alicia with some assistance from Elisabeth. Now Alicia is leaned back in her bed with Gracie, once again clutching her stuffed dinosaur, curled into her left side, tucked between Alicia and the wall of the infirmary.

Nathaniel, now dressed in light sweats and a t-shirt, is perched on the edge of her bed, running his hand through her hair. He glances over at Gracie to make sure she's asleep, and seeing that she is, he says, "So, can we declare a moratorium on your near-death experiences, Alicia?"

She swallows a laugh at that. "You know, I'm OK with that idea, Nathaniel."

He leans forward and presses a soft kiss to her lips, his hand still buried in her hair. After a few moments, he pulls back, removing his hand from her hair and joining it with hers, their fingers once again twining together. "You look tired, Nathaniel."

He gives her a wry smile. "Well, you may have heard about this – my wife was stuck up on a mountain with Shannon and Carter."

"Was she now?" She feigns surprise.

"She was." He leans in and kisses her again, this time deepening the kiss.

When he pulls back, she smiles at him, just slightly out of breath. "What was that for?"

He drops one more kiss on her forehead before slipping into the cot next to her bed, their hands still joined. "Remember, I promised I'd show you how much I love you."

She squeezes his hand, and then she brings their joined hands up and drops a kiss on the back of his hand. "So you did. But I think you love me more than that."

He laughs softly. "You're right, I do. And when we both are able to ditch the crutches, I'll demonstrate further."

"Promises, promises, Hopalong." She grins at him.

He snorts. "You just wait and see, Tripod."

Still grinning, she pulls Gracie tighter into her side, and she nestles down into her pillow. She squeezes Nathaniel's hand again. "Good night, Nathaniel."

He squeezes back and reaches up to extinguish the bedside lamp. "Good night, Alicia."


End file.
